CVE-2015-5312

The xmlStringLenDecodeEntities function in parser.c in libxml2 before 2.9.3 does not properly prevent entity expansion, which allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via crafted XML data, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-3660.

Published: 2015-12-15 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2015-5312 is rated Moderate Risk (63.4/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 4.52%, 90th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. EPSS rose +3.44% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2015-5312

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 1.08% 4.52% +3.44%
2 2026-05-12 1.48% 1.08% -0.40%
3 2026-05-11 1.48%

Full EPSS history (26 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2015-5312

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
8.6 6.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2015-5312

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2015-5312

GHSA-xjqg-9jvg-fgx2 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rubygems — Nokogiri subject to DoS via libxml2 vulnerability

OS Trackers for CVE-2015-5312

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2015-5312 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libxml2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2015-5312
gentoo normal CVE-2015-5312: 1 GLSA(s) (201701-37), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/libxml2); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2015-5312
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-5312
suse high CVE-2015-5312 severity important: SUSE including 370 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 524 product×package rows across 72 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Liberty Linux 7, … (72 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Fixed 220, Known Not Affected 73. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-5312/
ubuntu low CVE-2015-5312 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libxml2), 5 status rows across 5 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, vivid, wily): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2015-5312

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2015-5312

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 15.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 15.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:15.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_hpc_node 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_hpc_node:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple iphone_os <= 9.2.1 cpe:2.3:o:apple:iphone_os:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple mac_os_x <= 10.11.3 cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple tvos <= 9.1 cpe:2.3:o:apple:tvos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple watchos <= 2.1 cpe:2.3:o:apple:watchos:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
xmlsoft libxml2 <= 2.9.2 cpe:2.3:a:xmlsoft:libxml2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
hp icewall_federation_agent 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:hp:icewall_federation_agent:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
hp icewall_file_manager 3.0 cpe:2.3:a:hp:icewall_file_manager:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2015-5312

URL Tags
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00000.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00001.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00002.html Third Party Advisory
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2016/Mar/msg00004.html Mailing List
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-12/msg00120.html
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2016-01/msg00031.html
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=145382616617563&w=2 Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2549.html Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-2550.html Third Party Advisory
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1089.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3430 Third Party Advisory
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/bulletinjan2016-2867206.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinoct2015-2719645.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/79536
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034243
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-2834-1 Third Party Advisory
http://xmlsoft.org/news.html Vendor Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1276693 Issue Tracking
https://git.gnome.org/browse/libxml2/commit/?id=69030714cde66d525a8884bda01b9e8f0abf8e1e
https://h20566.www2.hpe.com/portal/site/hpsc/public/kb/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c04944172 Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-37
https://support.apple.com/HT206166 Vendor Advisory
https://support.apple.com/HT206167 Vendor Advisory
https://support.apple.com/HT206168 Vendor Advisory
https://support.apple.com/HT206169 Vendor Advisory
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